1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of wireless networks and telecommunications. More particularly, in one exemplary embodiment, the present disclosure describes configuration and usage of extensible carrier resources within a wireless (e.g., cellular) network.
2. Description of Related Technology
Incipient research in spectral usage and deployment address an ever increasing demand for higher capacity and higher data rates in cellular networks. Significant areas of interest include modifications to existing data and control information transmission structures (also referred to throughout as “carriers”). For example, standardization efforts for 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release 11 have been directed to partially-configured carrier structures within non-backward compatible configurations.
Within the context of 3GPP LTE Release 11, proposed and/or existing solutions for carrier design are required to support operation in the following scenarios: (i) synchronized carriers (i.e., where the legacy and segment/extension carriers are synchronized in time and frequency), and (ii) unsynchronized carriers (i.e., where the legacy and segment/extension carriers are not synchronized in time and/or frequency such that separate synchronization processing is required in the receiver). More directly, carrier synchronization has a direct impact on the processing burden of the receiver.
Generally, network operators struggle with adding new spectrum within coverage areas which have existing spectral deployments. While synchronized carriers are preferred to reduce overall receiver complexity, unsynchronized carriers are easier to deploy. Existing solutions for improving network coverage rely on adding more spectrum; however, incipient research is directed to more efficient spectral usage and/or additional optimizations which may be possible, with larger aggregated bandwidths.
Hence, improved solutions are needed for configuration and usage of extensible carrier resources within a wireless (e.g., cellular) networks. Ideally, such solutions for carrier deployment should optimize energy efficiency, provide flexible spectrum usage, enable heterogeneous network deployments, and/or enable machine type communications.